The Ten Essential ielts vocabulary

after-school childcare = caring for children in a school setting, as above


Many families rely on after-school childcare because both parents work and commute.


viable = practical and possible to achieve


It is not really viable to expect all children to get maximum grades in exams.


peers = people in the same group or level as yourself
Many of my peers from school are now working for charities.


bonding = the development of close emotional connections between people Festivals and parties are an ideal time for families to bond.
patterns of behaviour = ways of acting and doing things (either positive or negative)


Unfortunately, some children absorb dangerous patterns of behaviour when watching movies or playing computer games.


well brought-up (to bring up children = to raise and educate them in your own moral, behavioural or religious conventions)


I was brought up in a very religious family, and I seem to have absorbed their values.

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Topic 4: Nature, the environment and energy

About Topic 4


The Nature, the environment and energy topic includes fossil fuels and renewable fuels, climate change, threats to the environment (deforestation, pollution etc) and their effects, the biosphere, and animal life/human attitudes to animals.
In this topic, remember to show that you can write in an impersonal, academic way, even if you feel strongly about something. Remember that emotional words such as terrible, shocking, disgusting or wonderful, fantastic, brilliant cannot be used in Academic English essays of this type. You can use Academic English such as regrettable, worrying, inadvisable or admirable, helpful, invaluable instead, which are more accepted in these situations.


This topic is often used for Ideas>Cause/effect type Tasks. Topic 4 example Task
Pollution of rivers, lakes and seas is a major concern for people who seek to protect the environment. What are the possible causes of water pollution, and what effects does this have on animal life and human society?


Explanation of the Task


This is an Ideas>Causes/effects type Task. It does not ask for your opinion, but it wants you to think of some possible ideas on the topic. You should introduce the topic, describe two or three causes, then two or three effects, and then summarise briefly.
Band 9 model essay


Water contamination is a serious form of pollution, and one that can be challenging to rectify.
There seem to be two main causes involved, and a variety of damaging effects on people and the biosphere, which we will discuss here.
Probably the main factor is the issue of emissions from cars, factories and other human activities. These emissions contain damaging pollutant particles which can contaminate rainwater run-off and thus enter the water cycle, by transferring through the water table into aquifers, streams and rivers. Filtration and processing are not really viable options for such large volumes of water, and so the water table remains tainted with these elements over long periods, as we see in Eastern Europe today. In situations where soil erosion and logging have already damaged the local environment, the accumulation can be very serious. The other major cause is accidental or deliberate dumping of waste products in places outside of controlled landfills or waste processing centres.
Even small amounts of abandoned waste can enter water supplies through the ground, often
undetected.
The effects on animal life can be severe, especially for species which are already endangered
by such threats as poaching, habitat loss and food chain disruption. Contaminated water can lead to dwindling numbers or even potential extinction, as may indeed happen to the Asian tiger populations. The impact on human society can also be distressing, including the poisoning of drinking water, famine or drought due to lack of safe irrigation, and long-term loss of land as we see, for example, after the Bhopal poisoning catastrophe in India. Such effects tend to have an especially grave impact on the very poorest in society, with the least resources to counter the environmental effects.
Overall, we see that emissions and dumping are the main origins of the problem, and that the
effects on both humans and animals are exacerbated by the existing environmental, criminal or social problems.

(316 words)

Explanation of the topic vocabulary and examples in Speaking